Venture Capital and the Inventive Process

The inventive process is the most important driver of economic growth. Venture capital (VC) funds have contributed a small, but critical, part to the inventive process. VC funds boost the inventive process by selecting a small number of radical ideas out a large flow of ideas and invest in their testing, development and commercialization. They bring together capital from general savings, management capabilities and business experience. When successful, VC-backed companies can contribute substantially to the welfare of society.

In this book, VC funds are discussed in the context of macroeconomics, industrial organization, financial intermediation and financial economics. The authors adopt a comprehensive overview to provide clearer insight into the role of VC funds in the capital market and the way they operate.

Tamir Agmon is a visiting professor of finance at the School of Business, Economics and Law at Gothenburg University, Sweden, and a professor emeritus of finance at Tel Aviv University, Israel. Professor Agmon has also held visiting appointments at MIT and USC at Los Angeles, USA. He has published many articles in scholarly journals, and has written and edited books on finance and international business. Previously, he was a consultant for VC funds and VC-backed start-up companies.

Stefan Sjögren is an associate professor in the Department of Business Administration and is affiliated to the Centre for Finance at the School of Business, Economics and Law, University of Gothenburg, Sweden. He has written on valuation, capital structure, venture capital, capital budgeting, deregulation, law and finance, and efficiency measurement. Sjögren is the Director of the PhD-program at his department, where he teaches corporate finance and private equity at master and PhD level.